Madeleines
by TurnerPendragon
Summary: Jack x Anna. You will recognize the footprints of your love in the snow.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: I own nothing. ****Enjoy.**** This is a Christmas present to all my lovely Jack x Anna fans. I love you. So, so much.**

**Madeleines**

**Lesson one:** Don't forget the things you've said.

Anna stared out of the window. It was snowing. "Happy Christmas," she wrote on another decorated postcard and sighed. It was already late in the evening. Everything outside was pitch black like the dark orbs that haunted her in her dreams. The heaps of pure white echoed the moonlight, glittering as if thousands of fairies had dusted them.

The only source of light inside the small cottage was a tiny candle. She tried hard to keep it going, but even so, it was already going out. The room was chilly, but not cold enough for her to get the flames going in the fireplace across the creaking table.

Despite the fact she was alone and unfairly so, her face was adorned with a small smile. A small sigh escaped her lips. It would have suited her sister better to be there, she thought, writing "Happy Christmas" for another time. It was a Christmas tradition for the royal family to send Christmas cards, acknowledging the importance of the good deeds of their people and to thank them for what they had done. Usually, it would have been the reigning queen to sign the cards with the name of royal household, but it was incredibly unfortunate (for Anna, at least) that an international conference was being held in the neighbouring kingdom and Elsa absolutely had to attend.

"A few more," she reminded herself, looking at the pile of unfinished business. She wanted to go to sleep, badly, but she knew she couldn't. Tomorrow, Kristoff would come with Sven and they would deliver those cards. She had no other option. She had to finish tonight.

"God, this place feels haunted." She shivered at the thought of ghosts and pulled her blanket tighter around her back. When she had optioned to come to stay there, everyone had been surprised. There had been cries of "You can't go!" and "You're so brave!" alike. Truth was, she hadn't thought about it at all. To her, fairy folk wasn't dangerous and ghosts weren't real. After all, she had never seen one. Her sister's magic along with the friendly, although meddlesome trolls was all she knew of that world and in a way, this was more than enough.

The frost was drawing flowers on the windows, but she paid no heed to the beautiful patterns only Elsa's artistic hand could rival. Nothing was out of the ordinary. She scribbled the same two words she had written at least a thousand times along with her name and placed another card on the pile of finished work. It was enormous.

She worked in silence, enjoying the comfortable solitude. She hadn't been alone for weeks, not even when she was going to sleep. There was a maid in the room next to hers, divided by something akin to a sheet of paper. She didn't need a maid, not really, but the lovely girl had needed a job and she had thoughtlessly offered.

At last, the final piece of carton fell on the finished pile. It was no different from the other cards – they looked the same and were signed by the same hand. But it was the final one and she found great happiness in that. She took the candle to light her way to the kitchen and put the kettle on.

_What am I afraid of?_

Church bells rang in the distant darkness, marking the midnight. They resounded in the darkness and Anna jerked in surprise. She was tired, but her mind was alert. Avidly listening to every sound, her heart beat anxiously. _Something is going to happen_, she thought and the proof came a few seconds later, as a sudden cold gush of cold wind passed by and put out the flickering light.

Anna wasn't afraid of dark, but the gloomy shadows and the wind whistling behind the window didn't make her feel too good either. Especially since she was alone. She lighted the candle again and went through the kitchen drawers in hopes of finding another one – one that wouldn't be as shabby. The light flickered again, but continued burning despite the growing chilliness.

Her eyes fixated on the white snow outside and she waited. Anna remembered seeing something like that in her dream, but she couldn't be sure. She felt exhausted. Night by night, she was haunted by the darkness and horrible creatures her mind conjured up.

She heard steps coming from the upper floor, but she ignored them, deciding it would be pointless to think of it. It could not have been anything other than her imagination. Pouring herself a cup of freshly brewed tea (which she desperately wished to turn into hot chocolate), she grabbed a book she had found in a room upstairs. It was a romance that didn't work out. The boy dies and the girl will remain in longing.

A few hours later, she had tears in her eyes. Still in kitchen, she hugged the book closer to her, but her crying had hardly to do anything with it. "I don't want to be alone," she whispered, drowning the last drops of already cooled drink. However, the tiny specks of sensibility in her brain kicked in soon after and she had to dry her tears. She should go to sleep, she decided.

Anna turned off the candles, bringing back the night and taking away the comforting bliss. She fumbled for the way to the stairs and climbed up.

It never occurred to her to listen to the echoing of her footsteps. If she had, she would have noticed immediately how off they were from the soft tiptoeing of her feet.

Somebody was walking behind her.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: I've chosen to move Jack's origins for the purpose of the story.**

**A/N: I obviously still don't own anything.**

**Happy Christmas, my dears.**

**Lesson two:** Not all medicine tastes sweet, but you're likelier to take it, if it does.

The sweet scent rising from the kitchen, sneaking in through the tiny crack under the door, made the sleeping body rise even though it was much too dark outside. She didn't even notice that she had forgotten to undo her braids and that thanks to it, her hair was less of a mess than it usually was. Her eyes were hurting and as she drowsily slid her feet off the bed onto the cold floor, it was tremendously lucky Anna and her clumsiness made it downstairs with a blanket safely. Drool was dripping from her mouth, for the brain had registered the delicious intoxicating smell as hot melted chocolate even if she was still half-asleep.

There were two porcelain cups on the kitchen table. She yawned and counted again. It wasn't a trick of light. Furthermore, they were both filled with the melted good she was certain she had not packed along on her trip (on her first day there, she had cried as she realized she had forgotten it) and besides, she had been asleep... Something in her brain clicked, but it didn't stop the drool trying to slide down her chin.

She helped herself to one of the cups. "It's my place and the intruders had no right to the kitchen anyway," she reasoned with herself, arming herself with a frying pan. Her cousin's husband had told her how wonderfully good of a weapon it made. Of course, it never occurred to Anna that a knife could have probably proved a little more efficient in her attempts to scare the strangers off.

Chocolate really must have been brought from heaven by all those holy angels all those old hand-bound books of her parents had written about. She let out of a happy sigh and closed her eyes, enjoying it utmost. It was certainly worth waking up for. Her eyes moved around the empty kitchen, studying every detail of it. So many things were out of place. There was a fire in the stove and on top of it, a baking tray with cinnamon buns, still warm to touch. The kitchen was cleaner than she had left it (for example, she hadn't bothered to do the dishes and now there weren't any that were dirty). Something was certainly off about it all. What kind of intruder would enter a stranger's house, make two cups of hot chocolate and a full tray of cinnamon buns (another thing she loved) and clean up her messes? It sounded fishy.

Still, she happily took two of the buns and decided to have breakfast, unaware of the figure sitting in front of her. Eyeing her with a small smile, there was Jack Frost. Invisible to the eyes of non-believers, he was still happy to not be alone at Christmas. Of course, the entire world would have wanted his presence in the shape of White Christmas, but over time, he had grown slightly displeased of running around and raising trouble with icy roads and heavy snow, receiving nothing in return. Obviously, he was going to get in trouble with Santa for it, but then again, now there was this new girl too. He wanted to have fun, it was true. But he didn't want to be _alone_.

"You know," Anna said, licking off her fingers. "I've no idea who you are or why you came, but you're really good at baking. I bet you're one of the trolls Kristoff sent ahead to take care of me. He was really frightened when I said I was going to come here. You can come out, I won't mind." She looked around, hoping to see a familiar rock transforming into one of the magic creatures, but nothing happened.

Jack smiled, tracing the cup in front of him with his finger. Minuscule patterns of ice formed on the inner side, nearly touching the hot chocolate. Anna sighed.

"Alright, if you don't want to, then so be it. But thank you for waking me," she said quietly. "I slept horribly. As per usual these days."

Jack leaned in, interested. The girl, as if sensing it, decided to continue.

"I keep seeing this one dream again and again. It's so dark, I can't breathe, I can't move. It feels so cold, as if my heart has been frozen over like the lake a little south from here. There used to be a village here, about a century ago." She smiled sadly. "My mother told me this story. Her grandmother was from the village that used to be here. When she was little, she went skating with her older brother once. Saving her, he fell through ice and never surfaced. My great grandmother never spoke after that. One time, the young prince of Arendelle passed through and fell in love with her."

"I wish I could have a love like that. To save me." Her confession surprised the boy and he smiled even wider. There was something about this girl that made him want to protect her and it made him incredibly happy to know she wished to be protected as well.

"Anna," he whispered, reaching out with his hand. Something stirred in her heart. She closed her eyes, crossed her fingers and hoped a star would fall, as she wished with her entire being for something great to happen. Something cold but soft brushed against her lips and she smiled, keeping her eyes closed for longer, savouring the moment. When she opened them, there was nothing visible to the eye, but she knew, in her heart, that the intruder was there. Except this time, he had intruded her heart.

Jack held her breath, eyes wide in pleasant shock. He had no idea how he'd managed to get on top of the table and not spill a single drop of hot chocolate in a few seconds, as his lips had found hers.


End file.
